Holocaust in Volozhinsky district

The Volozhin district was completely occupied by German troops on June 26, 1941, and the occupation lasted more than three years - until July 1944 ^[3] . The Nazis included the Volozhinsky district in the territory administratively assigned to the Ostland Reichskommissariat of the General District of Belarus .

All power in the area belonged to the Sonderfuhrer , the German chief of the district, who was subordinate to the head of the district, the Gebitsomissar . In all large villages of the district, district (volost) councils and police garrisons from Belarusian and Ukrainian collaborators were created ^[4] .

To carry out the policy of genocide and carry out punitive operations immediately after the troops, the punitive units of the SS troops, Einsatzgruppe , Sonderkommando , secret field police (HFP), security and SD police, gendarmerie and Gestapo arrived in the region ^[5] .

Simultaneously with the occupation, the Nazis and their henchmen began the mass extermination of Jews ^[5] . “Actions” (such as the euphemism by the Nazis called the massacres organized by them) were repeated many times in many places. In those settlements where Jews were not killed immediately, they were kept in ghetto conditions until they were completely exterminated, using heavy and dirty forced labor, from which many prisoners died from excessive loads in the conditions of constant hunger and lack of medical care ^[5] .

During the occupation, almost all the Jews of the Volozhin district were killed, and the few who survived fought in the majority later in partisan units ^{[6] [7]} .

The most massacres of Jews in the Volozhin district occurred in Volozhin ^[8] , Ivenets ^[9] , Rakov ^[10] , the villages of Brylki (Voznovshchina, Komarovka) ^[11] , Vishnevo ^[12] , Zabrezie ^[13] , Stone ^[14] , Mikhalovo ^[15] , Polochanka ^[15] .

The occupying authorities, on pain of death, forbade Jews to take off their yellow armor or six-pointed stars (identification marks on their outer clothing), leave the ghetto without special permission, change their place of residence and apartment inside the ghetto, walk on sidewalks, use public transport, be in parks and public places to attend schools ^[16] .

The Germans, implementing the Nazi program of extermination of Jews , created 5 ghettos in the district ^{[17] [18]} .

• In the Vishnevsky ghetto (July 1941 - September 26, 1942) more than 2,000 Jews were killed.
• In the Volozhin ghetto (August 1941 - summer 1943), about 3,000 Jews died.
• In the Ivenets ghetto (November 10, 1941 - June 9, 1942) more than 1000 Jews were tortured and killed.
• In the Rakovsky ghetto (August 1941 - February 1942), the Nazis killed more than 1,000 Jews.

Zabrezie

In the village of Zabrezie, before the war, Jews made up a significant part of the population ^[6] .

In the very first days after the occupation, the Germans drove the Jews into the ghetto ^[3] . The territory of the ghetto was surrounded by a wooden fence and several rows of barbed wire. Jews, under pain of death, were forbidden to appear without an identification mark - sewn onto the armor of their outer clothing ^[6] .

The prisoners were abused with impunity. For example, often the Germans and policemen, to the sound of music, drove the Jews out of the ghetto, forced them to stand on all fours and drove in this form to the field, where they forced them to pluck grass and tear out sods, as well as to drink dirty water from puddles. Those who refused to do so were beaten to death with lashes and batons ^[6] .

In July (winter ^[6] ) of 1942, ghetto prisoners were locked up in a barn, which was doused with gasoline and burned alive. Those trying to get out of the fire were shot. In total, about 180 Jews were shot and burned alive that day ^[6] . According to eyewitnesses, in the church during the service the priest asked: “ “ People, do not touch the empty Jewish huts. Do not even take the needles “, but, unfortunately, not everyone followed this ” ^[19] .

Only a few young men and women who escaped from the ghetto and joined the partisans in the forest managed to escape to Zabrezie. The old people had nowhere to go, and the Germans, realizing this, even released them from the ghetto to feed themselves, when for several days before the destruction of the ghetto they kept the prisoners completely without food. The Jews left, and then dutifully returned to wait for death in a large threshing floor, in which they were burned ^[19] .

In 1946, in the center of the village, 100 meters from the village council, a monument was erected on the mass grave of 180 Jews ^[20] .

Incomplete lists of murdered Jews of Zabrezia have been published ^[21] .

In the Volozhin district, 21 people were awarded the honorary title “The Righteous Among the Nations ” from the Israeli memorial institute “ Yad Vashem ” “ as a sign of the deepest gratitude for the assistance rendered to the Jewish people during the Second World War ”

• The Slodzinsky Albert and Ioannina - for the salvation of Davidman Gdaliya, Stoler Dov, Kukin Leib and Milikovsky Mendel in the village of Dolknevichi ^[22] .
• Stasyak Maria - for the salvation of Dratvitskaya Regina and her son Beni in Volozhin ^[23] .
• Slodzinskie Yulian, Bronislava and Kerbedzh (Slodzinskaya) Regina - for the salvation of Milikovskaya Mine.
• Shnip Anton - for saving Babkis Ada and Jacob in the villages of Legeza and Glea ^[24] .
• Magpie Joseph, Olga and Anatoly - for saving Babkis Ada in the village of Legezy.
• Belsky Alexander and Alexandra - for saving Babkis Yakov in the village of Gley ^[25] .
• Pozharitsky Bronislaw and Alima - for saving Gringauz Geni in the village of Ginevichi ^[26] .
• Novodvorskie Jan and Antonina - for the salvation of Lavit Shai and Godes Joseph in Volozhin ^[27] .
• Bochkovsky Flavian, Stanislava, Jozef, Zygmunt, Sapezhinskaya (Bochkovskaya) Helena - for the salvation of David Gringolts and his son Aron in the village of Krechevtsy ^[28] .

Four monuments were erected to the murdered Volozhin Jews in the city itself and also at the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv. A memorial was erected on the Jewish mass grave in Ivenets. Two monuments were erected for Jews in Vishnevo and Rakov. In Zabrezie, a monument to the victims of the Holocaust is erected in the center of the village.

Incomplete lists of the killed Jews of the Volozhin district have been published ^[29] .

Books and articles

• Adamushko V.I., Biryukova O.V., Kryuk V.P., Kudryakova G.A. Directory of places of forced detention of civilians in the occupied territory of Belarus 1941-1944. - Mn. : National Archive of the Republic of Belarus, State Committee for Archives and Record Keeping of the Republic of Belarus, 2001. - 158 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 985-6372-19-4 .
• L. Smilovitsky. The ghetto of Belarus - examples of genocide (from the book "The Holocaust of Jews in Belarus, 1941-1944."
• L.K. Lyavonaў, B.I. Malisheўski, A.L. Petrashkevich i insh. (redkal.), Ya.Ya. Yanushkevich (laying). “Memory. Valozhinsky Ryan. " - Mn. : “Mastatsky Literature”, 1996. - 454 p. - ISBN 985-02-0387-0 . (belor.)
• G. K. K_syalyoў, A. E. Keysіk i insh. (redkal.), K. I. Kozak, A. I. Blacksmith (laying). “Memory. Pastaўsky rayan. " - Mn. : BELTA, 2001 .-- 688 p. - ISBN 985-6302-35-8 . (belor.)
• Vishnevo - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• Volozhin - article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• Ivenets - article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;

additional literature

• Smilovitsky L. L. The catastrophe of the Jews in Belarus, 1941-1944 . - Tel Aviv: Matthew Black Library, 2000 .-- 432 p. - ISBN 965-7094-24-0 .
• Yitzhak Arad . The extermination of the Jews of the USSR during the years of German occupation (1941-1944). Compilation of documents and materials, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem Publishing House , 1991, ISBN 9653080105
• Chernoglazova R. A., Kheer H. The tragedy of the Jews of Belarus in 1941-1944: a collection of materials and documents. - Ed. 2nd, rev. and more .. - Mn. : E. S. Halperin, 1997 .-- 398 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 985627902X .
• Vinnitsa G.R. Holocaust in the occupied territory of Eastern Belarus in 1941-1944. - Mn. : Ark, 2011 .-- 360 p. - 150 copies. - ISBN 978-985-6950-96-7 .

• Monuments to the victims of the Holocaust in Belarus